


The Deciding Match

by rozanyg



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura wears the pants in the relationship, F/M, Fix-It, Keith is sweet, Minor Violence, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Power Couple, exposed feelings through a fight, how is that not a tag but power bottom is?, plance is implied, tf?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 04:42:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17891693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rozanyg/pseuds/rozanyg
Summary: Keith and Allura face Honerva once their find their base and have the faceoff of the century. Using their quintessence abilities, they realize they're stronger together in fights and not just on the battlefield.





	The Deciding Match

Arriving on Oriande was faster than they initially thought, but they were up for anything. Thanks to the joint effort of the Holt family, Voltron’s quintessence signature is masked and, using Pidge’s invisible shield, the Lions are hidden and perched beside the massive building Honerva erected.

Per Allura’s suggestion, both she and Keith left their lions to investigate as the two members with the strongest connection to quintessence. The rest of the Paladins stayed in their lions and kept a close watch on their vitals during the reconnaissance mission. Keith, Allura, and Kosmo perched themselves behind a pillar to hide from the Altean guards and they crouched down low. Keith peeked through the side of the pillar and counted a dozen or so Alteans.

He turned around and placed a hand on Kosmo’s back, looking at Allura and prompting her to do the same. Once she placed her hand beside his on Kosmo, the cosmic wolf flashed in blue and they were suddenly inside of the Oriande palace. Allura gasped at the great change the last time she visited the beautiful palace.

The statues were no longer standing tall at the great hall. Instead they were replaced by dozens of robeasts and all the Alteans of the colonies were buzzing around working for preparations. Behind some open doors, Allura could see a bright glow coming from a pool of glowing liquid and the head of one of the statues was sinking into the intense concoction.

“No!” Allura tried to scream, but before she could break for the doors to stop them, Keith grabbed her wrist and pulled her into his arms to hide again and whispered a panicked, “Shh,” into her ear. Her stomach dropped in embarrassment when she saw Keith’s panicked face and felt his muscles tense from behind her. Footsteps were approaching their hiding place and Allura wanted to kick herself for her sudden outburst and revealing their hiding spot.

“Merla! Can you come check this out? The kromar is malfunctioning. Can you show us the blueprint?”

Merla, the guard who heard her Allura assumed, turned around and started explaining away what they did wrong. Once Merla was out of earshot, the two removed themselves from their embrace and Allura tried to avoid his gaze, “I’m sorry, Keith.”

“I understand. But this is a stealth mission. We have to be quick and silent,” Keith assured, calling forth his Bayard’s sword and peering over the side of the pillar. Once the room was clear, Keith motioned for Allura to follow him and they crossed the hall to hide behind another pillar. Then the next, and then the next. Once they made it in the room, Allura pressed her hand on a security pad and the doors slid closed.

“I see you have found our base,” a chilly, emotionless, and almost monotonous voice rang through the room. It chilled them to their bones and simultaneously lit a fire in them.

Keith and Allura both turned around, battle-ready, and glared at the new Altean Empress standing above them on a catwalk. Behind her, an ominous looking robeast stood tall and glared down at them. Honerva’s golden eyes were piercing into them and almost made them shiver under their intense gaze. Almost.

“You have come home my child,” Honerva addressed Allura.

Allura, however, did not take any of Honerva’s fake warmth in the statement and yelled, “I am, most definitely, not your child.”

Honerva sighed in frustration and extended her arms, “You have come to the home of our ancestors. You have learned their secrets. And from what I can see, you also have access to the celestial entity.”

“There is nothing celestial about it,” Keith growled, “It’s intoxicating. We’re just lucky Allura’s will is strong enough to fight it off.”

“A will is easily broken. It’s nothing but a mere idea in the mind. It can be broken down through trauma and tragedy. I know. I’ve lived through that,” Honerva spoke softly.

“Seeing the destruction of your planet isn’t traumatic enough? A will is strong enough if you have the support of people you love!”

“I lost the people I love!” Honerva screamed, “And you will too if you don’t help me bring me my son back.”

“Lotor’s time has passed!” Allura yelled back, tears welling in her eyes, “As much as I would’ve liked to still have him around so I could help him become the man he could’ve been...he’s gone. Life needs to take its course, Honerva.”

Honerva’s lips stretched upwards, “And yet you had no trouble reviving the Red Paladin after he died from electrocution.”

Keith blinked and looked at Allura. Whispering a broken, “Lance?”

Allura took a deep breath and muttered, “I understand where you’re coming from but these are different circumstances.”

Honerva grinned, “I don’t see how…”

“I didn’t have to ruin innocent lives to bring him back to life! You have destroyed Olkarion! You attacked Earth. You have sucked the Quintessence of so many planets. I understand you miss your son, but innocent lives don’t deserve to die for him! Especially not when he killed his own people through harvesting their Quintessence!” Allura yelled.

Allura took a step closer, her adrenaline running wild and her chin raised up in a challenge to the older woman looking down on them, “Let’s settle this now! You either come with us or we fight.”

Keith called for both his swords and held them at his sides, looking up at Honerva with the same look in his eyes. Honerva glared and, with a wave of her hand, started the fight.

A wave of quintessence spun around them like a typhoon and Allura glowed bright, opening up her arms and absorbing the quintessence only to release it like a pulse wave, knocking down the robeasts lining the walls and tipping Honerva’s mecha a bit.

Behind the duo, the Alteans were banging on the doors, evidently trying to enter and to capture them. Keith looked at the door and then at Honerva and he ran towards the door, Kosmo on his tail, “I’ve got you covered, you deal with Honerva!”

Allura lifted her hand to block another wave of Quintessence aimed at her. She turned around quickly to watch her leader run away towards the door and yelled back, “Don’t hurt them!”

The door was burst open and a group of a dozen Alteans tumbled into the rooms, each armed with a Bo staff and roaring to start a fight. Leading them was Merla. Keith slid on his knees and dodged an attack aimed at his face, quickly sweeping the feet of the first two Alteans using the blunt side of his sword, knocking them down on their feet.

“I’ll try!” He yelled over his shoulder, catching the Bo staff of another Altean, swiftly kicking him and his buddy in the back of their knees and he placed his hands over their heads, flipping over them and throwing their heads on the floor, immediately knocking them out. He twirled his blades, swiping left and right to cut clean through their Bo staffs and hitting the Alteans’ heads with the sword handles to knock them out. Kosmo, on his side, teleported on top of the Alteans to knock them down, biting their arms, and swiping their feet with his tail.

Allura put her attention on Honerva right on time to block another attack. Honerva was still on the catwalk and she wouldn’t make any efforts to go down to meet her eye to eye. That would be up to her. Allura saw a gun on one of the lab tables and picked it up. Instead of using it like a normal person would have, she threw it over her head and aimed it at Honerva’s head. The older woman missed it by a hair and winced when she heard the explosion of when the gun hit the mecha behind her.

She decided she would move away from the fire of the explosion to avoid any more damage being inflicted on her mecha and Allura followed her lead, jumping on the shoulders of shut down Altean sentries and latching onto one of the columns of the catwalk. She started climbing up, never once tearing her eyes off Honerva and she punched a hole through the floor of the catwalk.

She immediately moved on to a sprint to catch up to Honerva. She aimed a powerful punch aimed at the witch but it just fizzed through like it did during their first battle. Honerva materialised meters away and Allura growled in frustration speeding up faster and faster and aimed another punch, this one laced with Quintessence.

It hit.

Honerva reeled to the right and stature bent over the railing of the catwalk. Allura sprinted, grabbing onto Honerva’s royal clothes to attempt to catch her before she fell over the railing. Allura caught her collar and threw Honerva back onto the catwalk, throwing Honerva at the wall. The older woman fell into a heap on the floor and her crown fell off her head, sending her silver hair falling across her shoulders.

Allura approached the older woman and her body glowed as she accumulated more quintessence. Honerva looked up at Alfor’s daughter and raised her arm, striking Allura once more with a powerful hit. Allura was pushed backwards and, with a scream, flipped over the railing of the catwalk, falling to the ground head first.

Back on their side of the fight, Keith and Kosmo managed to knock out about half of the Alteans’ that were sent after him. Keith’s Bayard sword is currently holding one of the Alteans above the ground since it sliced through their clothes and into the metal of one of the columns holding the catwalk up. So now, with his Marmora sword, he’s making quick work of the rest of the Alteans.

After he punched another unconscious, he heard the huge doors to the room start opening slowly. He growled and ran towards the controls, sliding under the feet of one of the Alteans and slicing through the control box with a swift swipe. The doors stopped when just a sliver was open and no more reinforcements were able to enter.

Keith smiled, but it was quickly swept off his face when he was struck on the cheek with one of the Alteans’ Bo staffs and he bounced on the floor, his roll accentuated with grunts. He groaned once he stopped and tried to get up from his spot, but he was almost immediately lifted off the ground and forced the kneel with his head tilted downwards.

He felt the nape of his neck being poked with a Bo staff and he assumed they were all aiming their staffs at him. Keith was about to twirl and start another fight before he heard a shrill scream coming from above the catwalk. He snapped his neck in that direction and his eyes widened in panic once he saw Allura flip over the railing of the catwalk and he whispered a scared, “No.”

He growled and got to his feet, sprinting in Allura’s direction. He felt the Alteans close behind him and he yelled, “Kosmo!” His loyal wolf came to his rescue and tackled the pursuing Alteans to the ground, teleporting them on the other side of the door.

Keith slid on the ground and opened his arms and grunted when Allura fell in them perfectly. He was smacked by a few unconscious limbs, but that was fine if she was okay. Other than the fact that she was knocked unconscious, she seemed perfectly fine, but Keith knew that Quintessence can do much worse on the inside than in the outside.

“Allura?!” Keith asked, moving away some stray hairs from Allura’s updo off her face so he could get a better look, “Come on, Allura. Answer me!” Allura’s face was sweaty and she was shivering in his arms. She was hyperventilating and her breathing was not evenly paced. Keith felt her temperature and his eyes widened even more when he realized she was burning up.

“Now you understand the feeling of losing someone you love.”

That creepy, monotonous voice was back and Keith had to fight everything in him to refrain from throwing his sword at Honerva. Instead, he rose his head and hugged Allura close to him and growled, “You don’t know anything about me.” He growled it so low, Keith was sure that his Galra traits emerged.

He could see Honerva pause when she saw his face and her face suddenly took on a faux softness that made him sick to his stomach. She took a step closer and he could see her studying him, “You’re half-galra. Just like my son.”

“I am nothing like your son,” Keith snapped. Kosmo materialized beside the two and started growling at Honerva.

“Of course you are,” Honerva reasoned, “You’re a natural born leader. You were underestimated and your fate was decided by others. You’re destined for great things, Keith.”

“I am,” Keith agreed and stood up on his feet, laying Allura to lean on Kosmo’s back as the wolf sat down, and stood his ground in front of Allura’s body, “But not what you’re thinking. My great starts with defeating you and bringing back peace to the Galra and the universe.”

Honerva’s softness melted away, truly bringing a chill to Keith’s bones when he sees how easily and convincing she could act. Her hand began glowing and she lifted her hand to aim at him, “If you think you can take me on without Altean alchemy, you are sorely mistaken.”

Before he could retort, Honerva fired on Keith and he leaped away from the Princess in hopes that she would be safe from the crossfire. In his leap, he tucked and rolled and grabbed a Bo staff one of the Alteans he was fighting earlier dropped. In the next blast, he was able to hit it away with the staff, wincing when it struck the walls and shook the building.

Allura shifted in her spot and Keith immediately looked in her direction, breathing out in relief when he sees her get up again. But his relief was short lived when he was suddenly struck by one of Honerva’s quintessence blasts. Allura saw this and she screamed out, “Keith!”

She started getting up but almost immediately fell on to her side. She winced and looked down at her leg, realizing that she must have hurt it somehow when Keith caught her.

She got up again and tried to get back to Keith to make sure he was alright and maybe heal him somehow if he suffered too much. She saw him get up and she could hear him yell into his comms, “Guys!”

Suddenly, in her own helmet, she could hear Lance, “We’re already inside. The Alteans have been evacuated into the ATLAS. The doors won’t budge Keith!”

“Blow it up! I’ll make sure we’re clear from the impact!” Keith ordered and she saw him pick up the Bo staff.

Allura lifted herself off the floor in another attempt to get up. It worked for the most part, but she was struggling to keep herself balanced, “Keith, let me help!”

Keith glanced at her and dodged another hit, “No! You’re injured!”

“Don’t be ridiculous! You need help!”

Once she said those words, Honerva fizzed invisible and Allura yelled, “No!”

Keith closed his eyes and stood still, ignoring Allura’s yells and he honed in his senses to his surroundings. A flash of light and he saw Honerva’s form grow closer and closer, her hand splayed out and ready to attack him once she materialized. Keith prepped the Bo staff in his hand and timed the attack.

One flash.

He thrust the Bo staff forward.

Honerva materialized.

His attack hit.

Honerva was knocked far away and bumped into the feet of her mecha. Allura watched the witch fall to the ground for the second time during their battle and she was frozen in shock. Keith soon joined her side and lifted her up to her feet. She stumbled a bit and had to lean against him for a moment before gaining her footing again. Keith placed a hand to her waist and watched her fondly, “Are you okay?”

Allura smiled and nodded, “I am. Thank you.”

“You scared me back there,” Keith chastised.

“Well,” Allura squeezed his hand, “You scared me right now, so I supposed we’re even now.”

“Would you two quit flirting and open the door! It won’t budge!”

The two hastily let go of the other at the sound of Lance’s shrill scream and moved to open the door for their team on the other side. Allura grabbed one side and Keith grabbed the other, both pulling the doors together to make way for them to enter. Once the doors were open wide enough for one person to walk in, the team squeezed through in a single file line to get inside.

Shiro placed a hand on both Allura’s and Keith’s shoulders and squeezed, “I’m glad you two are alright. You had us worried.”

“Well, it seems like it’s over now,” Pidge added, stepping closer to Honerva. She peered at the unconscious woman through her visor.

Suddenly, Honerva’s hand wrapped itself around Pidge’s neck and the older woman got to her feet, gripping her neck tighter with the movement. The team immediately got into their battle stance and Lance aimed his gun at Honerva’s face, “Let her go!”

Honerva ignored all this and stood up on her feet. She tore Pidge helmet off her face to get a better grip and she held the girl away from her body to avoid getting hit by Pidge’s flailing legs. Once she saw Pidge’s face turning blue, she threw her at the team and Lance caught her. Unfortunately, Pidge’s body just took his body along and they both crashed against the wall of the room.

The team turned around to watch Pidge gasp for air and coughing up a storm. Lance was immediately by her side, his hand nursing his fractured rib cage, and was desperately trying to help her.

However, the team didn’t have time to react. Honerva quickly moved on to her next victim: Hunk. Before any of them noticed, Hunk yelled in agony. Shiro, Allura, and Keith turned around and saw Hunk fall to the floor holding his head in his hands and screaming incoherences. Shiro stood up proud in front of his fallen comrades, seemingly ready for anything Haggar could throw at them.

Sadly, that wasn’t the case. Haggar disappeared into thin air and zigzagged her way to her former experiment. Shiro looked around frantically, hearing her laugh echo through his mind, but he couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Suddenly, both Allura and Keith kicked the space in front of him, kicking Haggar into the legs of her robeast.

“Take them out of here!” Keith ordered Shiro.

Shiro frowned, “I won’t leave you two to fight her alone!”

Suddenly, Allura was behind him and she grabbed thin air, forcing Honerva into materializing before her, and threw Honerva into a robeast. Shiro stood with his jaw dropped, surprise having not seen an imminent attack for a second time that fight.

“Shiro,” Allura pleaded, standing attentive at his side, “You can’t sense her presence. Keith and I can, please get the team to safety. You’re helping us by keeping yourself and the team safe.”

Keith kicked the air again, but Honerva grabbed onto his foot and threw him onto the catwalk above. He got up quickly and saw Honerva heading for Lance and Pidge, who were still trying to recover from the blow they received seconds before. Keith started sprinting down the catwalk and yelled, “Allura!”

Immediately, Allura turned her head to where Keith pointed at and she aimed a punch at the witch. Honerva caught her blow as well and she caught the second punch Allura tried to land. The two women were in a standstill and they pushed against the other to try and gain the upper hand.

Allura grit her teeth and looked at Shiro and hissed, “Get them out of here!”

Suddenly, Keith materialized in a spark of teal embers and kicked Honerva out of the way. Shiro quickly sprinted by Hunk’s side and hoisted the unconscious man onto his shoulders. He turned to pick up Pidge but Lance lifted a hand and assured, “I can carry her.” Once the two injured were in their arms, the two ran out of the room and in a safe zone.

Allura and Keith were lucky that one time, but Honerva quickly gained the upper hand again. The both of them attacked on different sides, but she always found some way to evade their attacks. She would throw them onto difficult positions, whiz out of the way of their attacks, or try to throw them into the boiling metal pool in the middle of the room.

Kosmo saved Keith from that fate and teleported the both of them far from Honerva so he could catch his breath again. Keith panted and lifted himself up to watch Allura fight Honerva, his anger piling up more and more as he saw her being thrown around like a ragdoll. So far, he couldn’t even catch her if he tried.

“It’s like she doesn’t want us together,” Keith thought, frowning at the prospect, but then paused and thought again, “She doesn’t want us to _fight_ together.”

He turned to Kosmo, who was growling at the witch, and he nodded. Kosmo immediately teleported him to Allura and he rolled her out of the way of one of Honerva’s blasts. Allura blinked to get her bearings together and smiled in gratitude.

“Do you think there’s someway for you to use my quintessence to attack Honerva?” Allura blinked and rose a brow, so Keith elaborated, “The reason we can’t get a strong enough hit is that we keep hitting her individually…”

Keith was briefly interrupted when Allura tackled him to the floor when another blast hit their hiding place.

“…What if we attack her using both our quintessence?”

Allura’s eyes sparkled and her eyes opened in awe, “That’s perfect!” She extended her hand and ordered happily, “Hold my hand.”

Keith looked down at her hand and slowly put his on top of hers, letting her slim fingers wrap around his bigger hand. She stood up and he followed after her, both of them hiding behind rows and rows of boxes, narrowly avoiding Honerva’s blasts and getting closer and closer.

“Wait!” Keith tried to stop her, but it was no use as she kept leading them and showed no sign of stopping. “How are we going to do this?”

“Just shut up and trust me!” Allura replied, smirking at properly using sassy human vernacular.

Keith did as she commanded and followed her as she ran up the stairs to the catwalk. He had to dodge a few blasts from Honerva and pulling her out of the way a few times, but other than that, they were clear. She was following close and was making it increasingly hard to dodge the blasts and the two found themselves running into the railings and almost missing steps on the stairs.

Eventually, the two made it up and ran to the opposite side of the catwalk, making it just in time to see Honerva reach the top of the stairs. Allura tightened her hold on his hand and lifted it up to aim at Honerva. The witch began sprinting towards them and Keith was about to start running again to put more distance between them, but Allura didn’t budge. Instead, she closed her eyes. Before he could say something, Allura squeezed his hand and pleaded, “Trust me.”

He will. He always will.

He closed his eyes and concentrated, feeling a foreign warmth envelope him. He then opened his eyes and gasped when he sees himself in another plane. Almost like when he met Shiro in the Black Lion’s conscience, but this time it was bright, almost blinding.

He marveled at the change of scenery and awed at the specks of white in the soft red-pink sky. He turned around when he heard a giggle and his jaw went slack at seeing Allura standing behind him. She was dressed in her Paladin armor, but she was clear of the scratches her earned during the past battle.

“You-Where are we?”

“I’m guessing we’re in our shared conscience.”

“Our shared conscience?” Keith questioned, “What does that mean?”

Allura looked up into the sky, “When we both concentrated on our hands and sharing our quintessence, the interaction happens here. The sky is our flow of quintessence mixing together.”

“Can anyone do that?”

“Not everyone,” Allura admitted, “Only people who are adept at working with their quintessence. Your training with Krolia to develop your battle senses developed your ability to sense quintessence, that’s why you can see Honerva when she disappears.”

“And you’re an Altean so you’re naturally good at working with your quintessence,” Keith assumed.

“Exactly.”

There was a slight paused before Keith asked, “But how come we haven’t done this as a team, yet?”

“It’s difficult. We typically do things like this in the Lions. They sort of facilitate the mixing of our quintessence. Since the Lions also have their own quintessence, it helps us be able to work together in harmony. But it’ll be almost impossible for us to join our quintessence together like this. Our bond has to run much deeper. With Voltron, our bond has to be stronger with our Lion than with the rest of us in order to make it work.”

“Then,” Keith was almost scared to finish his thought. He had an inkling he knew the answer already. But he needed to know. “Then,” he continued, “Why can we do it?”

Allura grabbed his hand and squeezed warmly, “Because our bond is deeper than I originally thought.”

Keith smiled sheepishly, “Even after I acted like a complete jerk?”

“I’ll blame that on you going insane,” Allura teased, “I’ve forgiven you a long time ago, Keith. I know you only truly want the best for the team.”

Allura grabbed his other hand, “And if I can remember correctly, you defended me from Honerva attempting to kill me to make you feel the loss of someone you love.” Keith looked at the side and refused to look her in the eye to avoid losing his cool, “If Honerva’s words rang some sort of truth, then I know for sure that you return my feelings.”

Keith’s head shot up to look at her and, if it was possible, Allura beamed brighter. He found a smile creeping on his face and he chuckled, “You do?”

Allura stepped closer and looked up at him with her sparkling blue eyes and whispered, “I do.”

Keith looked down to her lips and back up to her eyes and began to lean in. Before he could lean in too much, Allura placed a finger on his lips and stopped him. She giggled at his look once he opened his eyes and explained, “We finish this fight first.”

Keith nodded and squeezed her hands in his, “Together. We finish this fight together.”

Allura smiled, “Of course.”

Keith opened his eyes again and, with a newfound determination, he sprinted towards Honerva with Allura. Before him, Honerva already had two blasts aimed for them and ready to fire, but they didn’t stop.

In a flash, two lasers hit Honerva’s shoulders, stopping her from being able to shoot her attacks, and a green grappling hook wrapped itself around her hands, stopping her from trying to aim another attack at them again. Keith should have known his team wouldn’t leave them completely on their own. He was sure that if he turned his head, he would see them heroically holding their Bayards with pure fury written across their faces.

As a boost, Allura and Keith both roared their battle cries and they thrust their hands forward. Keith felt an intense wave overwhelm him and, suddenly, a light blue beam of concentrated quintessence shot from his hand intertwined with Allura’s and towards Honerva. He can feel Allura’s doing the same and their beams mixed together as they shot towards Honerva as one powerful hit.

Once it made impact, Honerva let out a horrible scream, one that he didn’t want to remember, but one that will forever be engrained in his mind. A small black mass came out of her, but it immediately disintegrated once it was hit with the pure quintessence and, suddenly, the screaming stopped, and she laid limp on the floor.

And something told Keith she wouldn’t get back up.

Suddenly, exhaustion took over and Keith and Allura both fell over after losing so much quintessence and they fell in a heap, Allura falling right on top of his chest.

From down below, he could hear Lance, Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro all call out to them in a panic and Keith thought it was endearing how much they cared. “We’re fine,” he assured, “Just tired.”

“I’ll be surprised if you weren’t!” Lance quipped, approaching the two of them as he walked up the stairs, “That was an insane quintessence laser! And it didn’t even come out of the Lions!”

Keith rolled his eyes as Lance began rambling about their laser and Pidge and Hunk trying to figure out how they did it. Keith felt Allura wrap her arms around his abdomen and he lifted his hand to join hers and intertwined their fingers. He could feel her smile against his collar bone, so he turned his head and placed a soft kiss on her forehead.

He breathed in the scent of her hair and he felt himself relax at the familiar smell of Mrs. Holt’s juniberries. He felt the weight of the universe finally lift off his shoulders.

It was over and they survived.


End file.
